For over four decades, the Friends of Springside Park, along with other concerned residents, have helped maintain, beautify, and protect this key expanse of woods, fields, streams, playgrounds and other recreational areas that comprise the some 231 acres. As city funding and prioritization of local parks has significantly fallen off over the past few decades, they and several other groups involved in the park have looked out for it, picked up its trash, raised funds for improvements, planted trees and flowers, organized tours and events, and nobly held the line against a parade of unwise development schemes and potential incursions.

When the first parcel of land of what is now Springside Park was first bequeathed to the City over a century ago, it was based on the understanding of two conditions: that it be in maintained as a public park, what the Miller family who largely forged it envisioned as a Pittsfield analogue to Central Park, and “that it be reasonably improved forever.”

Through tireless efforts by concerned neighbors and organized alliances, the first has been managed, against all manner of innapropriate development attempts, from golf courses to housing. The second is a promise that the City of Pittsfield has for many years been failing to keep.

Despite valiant efforts by this coalition of dedicated residents, the challenges have been many, and the eroded trickle of financial resources and citywide attention has had a large impact over the last few decades, to the point where there is now a widespread perception of a site in decline.

Since I was a kid growing up nearby, and in all my time involved with Springside Park in various ways, I’ve heard a ton of questions and complaints regarding Springside Park. Most of them begin with the word When.

“When are they going to fix the pond?” “When are they going to restore the Springside House?” “When are they going to [fix/fund/repair/restore/repaint/rebuild] this or that?” Frustrations fueled by fond memories of a lost Golden Era at Springside.

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The answer to one component of these questions has been clear to me for a while now. Potential answers to the rest have only recently really began to emerge in the public eye, and some of them are, in my opinion, very exciting.

The first answer is that “They” (whoever that is) aren’t ever going to do anything, of and on “their” (ambiguous) own. The squeaky wheel truly does get the grease, and If anything of real significance is to be done, it’s going to be because a critical mass of people persistently push for it, support it, and make it happen. If future improvements are to take place at Springside, it will occur in the way that every real improvement or positive change has occurred, through sufficient citizen support.

As to the question of when, as I see it, the answer must be now. The beginning of making some great things happen can be right now, if we dare it, if we commit to making it a reality. The timing is extremely apt right now to push forward on some really promising endeavors that could yield huge benefits and secure the future of our largest city park for years to come. In fact, any answer other than now for moving forward with some proposed initiatives could result in missed opportunities and another giant loss in a city that has already seen many so missed opportunities and lost so much of its historic fabric.

On top of that, we’ve had a constant dialogue in the last few years about economic development and attracting new business. Yet we’ve to some extent ignored the fact that similarly to cultural attractions, city parks and open spaces are one of the things that is very high among the checklist of things that companies examine when looking at locations around the country. The Common, a controversial site that was one of the city’s earliest graveyards, has received some TLC and development dollars over the past year, while the central gem of Springside Park, which in 2008 was added to the National Register of Historic Places, has suffered relative neglect. An as yet missed opportunity to elevate this place into the recreational and educational trove, the natural and historic beacon it could be for local residents and tourists alike.

However, over the last couple of years some very helpful legwork has gone on behind the scenes (due in large part to Ward 1 Councilor Christine Yon, who has doggedly pursued the mission of bettering the park since elected) and with a growing body of research in hand, some key ideas have emerged. There are currently proposed plans for restoring and utilizing the 150+ year old Springside House, the only city owned historic mansion, a potential restoration plan for the pond, and a variety of other enhancement projects that could be undertaken.

Springside House circa 1970

The concept for repurposing the underused Springside House, just south of Reid Middle School at 874 North Street, is to offer facilities to BCC and other potential educational partners that could serve in part as a home base for a wide variety of environmental education programs. The diverse territory of Springside offers a unique centralized hub of several ecosystems, multiple vernal pools, hundreds of plant and animal species– and Springside House is perfectly located alongside the already thriving Arboretum and community gardening projects in the northern corner of the park and connected by trails to every part of park, from the back of Reid to the Doyle ball park and down along the entire back of the Morningside Heights neighborhood (it’s really much bigger than most people think). The advantages of such a use are many:

It would have a substantial educational benefit that could extend from higher ed down to elementary school students.

It’s an ideal use for some of the vacant spaces in the Springside House that is entirely in keeping with the stated purpose and original vision for the park- in fact, reinforcing and gaining greater yield from its natural resources.

There are multiple, viable opportunities out there for outside funding of such a project. Combined with the right willingness from city government, this could prove a perfect chance and reason to restore the house with little or no expense to taxpayers.

Every major citizen group and city department involved in Springside Park seem to be in support of it.

This use would still allow room in the spacious restored mansion

for other beneficial uses; as a place to hold functions, for enhancing and expanding cultural events like the annual Pittsfield City Hoopla, our native hoola-hoop festival, Eagles Band concerts, and other such festivities held there. This part of the park has been under-utilized as an outdoor performance venue compared to earlier years. That’s not to say it’s an opportunity for Tanglewood Pittsfield, but it has hosted concerts with crowds up to three thousand people (and without, like, destroying the Park, man).

-Nor, I’m told, would it preclude rental uses and the prime opportunity there for major revenue generation for the city- things like weddings, where site fees for other historic manors in the Berkshires can run in the tens of thousands, just to be there.

The restored house would then be a platform, beacon, and overall hub for launching and overseeing all future improvements to Springside Park.

Again, I have to list mission. Restoring the park’s major historic structure for such a purpose symbolically and actually sets us on a defining course that would keep reinforcing the original and long-defended vision for Springside, that it be kept up in an essentially low impact manner, as a place of natural beauty and public benefit. This would help safeguard for generations to come against condos and golf courses, and keep efforts moving in a way that fulfills the condition set forth 102 years ago by Kelton Miller that “This land is to have and to hold forever as a public park.”

This is something that can happen, and in a relatively near future. But it’s going to take a great deal of support. It’s going to, as they say, take a village.

It’s going to take people hours and donated skills and advice. It’s going to take the attention of city government, media interest, communication and organizational cooperation. It’s going to take a ton of citizen advocacy (see: What can we do?) to push it up on the list and keep it there long enough to get this done. It’s going to take knowledge, expertise, and donated labor from a variety of fields, from construction to business to environmental and all sorts of able hands and minds in between. And it’s going to take some contributions from our local financial institutions and major employers, who have as much stake in this majestic place as the rest of us.

And as always, the entire area will continue to require the ongoing formal and informal clean up efforts, season after season; the eternal holding of the line in keeping it pristine, and reducing the footprint of unfortunate littering and dumping. We gotta pick up the trash. It’s just the way it is. Even an hour of time, whether this Saturday (rain date: Sunday) or anytime on your own, makes a real impact.

Supporters of Springside would love to see this weekend’s cleanup be one of the largest in years, a sign of support and intention from the community that it’s ready to put its hands to it and its money where its mouth is to make this vital site the incredible asset that it it was always meant to be. The City of Pittsfield has made promises regarding Springside, from its recent master plan and open spaces plan a couple of years ago, and dating on back to 1910-and it’s time it started keeping those promises.

And then maybe after all those years of asking When, looking back the only question that will be left is where were you when the tide was turned, when things started to really happen, when we came together to achieve a real win for Pittsfield.